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LWV Newsletters - 2011
Newsletters_11
LWV Newsletters for calendar year 2011
Click the Newsletters Archive page to view newsletters for 2007-2010
2011 LWVLPC Newsletters.
2011 LWVCO Newsletters.
2011 LWVCO Legislative Letter.
LWVUS VOTER 2011.
2011 LWVLPC Newsletters
*The November 2011 VOTER is now ready for your on-line viewing.
Topics include:
*10/17/11 LWVLPC: Click Oct 10 Issues forum to read about the recent ballot issue forum in Durango. by Lou Falkenstein, member of LWVLPC.
*The September 2011 LWVLPC VOTER is now ready for your on-line viewing.
Topics include:
- September Calendar
- Federal role in education study
- LWVCO takes neutral position on state ballot issue
- National study: Privatization of Government Services
- Clean Air Promise Campaign
- LWV Facebook and Twitter accounts
- New format for calendar and newsletter
- Too late to make the VOTER but news from the Office of the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder:
*La Plata County Clerk and Recorder:Online Vehicle Registration Renewals/Voter Registration
I'm very pleased to announce La Plata County citizens can now renew their vehicle registration online. You may pay by credit card or e-check. If you do choose to utilize this service, I would really appreciate your feedback. I plan on doing a press release later next month to allow us time to perfect our procedures.
http://co.laplata.co.us/departments_and_elected_officials/clerk_recorder
Also, remember you may register to vote, update your registration or request a mail in ballot online at http://www.govotecolorado.com. Election material is not forwardable so don't forget to update if you have moved or changed your mailing address. We are very pleased with the number of voters taking advantage of this paperless option!
Thank you,
Tiffany L Parker, La Plata County Clerk & Recorder
98 Everett St, Suite C Durango, Colorado 81303(970)382-6294
- *The August 2011 LWVLPC VOTER
is now ready for your on-line viewing.
- *The April 2011 LWVLPC VOTER is now read for your on-line viewing. Due to its size, you may access the calendar separately.
Click April 2011 calendar
to read the April 2011 VOTER calendar.
Click April 2011 articles to read the April 2011 articles.
The April VOTER also includes the following reference:
Lincoln Presentation
- *The March 2011 LWVLPC CALENDAR is now read for your on-line viewing.
Click March 2011 calendar
to read your abbreviated newsletter.
The March CALENDAR includes the following references:
Highlights of 12/16/10 interview with State Senator Ellen Roberts
Highlights of 2/5/11 interview with State Representative J. Paul Brown
Highlights of 2/25/11 interview woth La Plata County Commissioner, District 1, Bobby Lieb
- The February 2011 LWVLPC Calendar is now read for your on-line viewing.
Click February 2011 Calendar
to read your abbreviated newsletter.
- The January 2011 LWVLPC VOTER is now read for your on-line viewing.
Click January 2011 VOTER
to read your newsletter.
The January VOTER includes the following references:
LWVUS resolution on safe drilling passed June 2010
Life Long Learning winter-spring schedule
LWVLPC Renwal Form 11-12
2011 LWVCO Newsletters
* click LWVCO League Day Agenda to check out a revised agenda for League Day, September 24, 2011
*6/6/11 Marilyn Brown of LWVLPC provides the following summaries of the 2011 LWVCO State Convention:
2011 LWVCO Legislative Letter
* Legislative Letter 9-2011 JUne 3, 2011
This is the is the final Legislative Letter for 2011 from LWVCO.
All of the bills that are noted as "to gov" will become law because the deadline for him to veto has passed, except SB 213, which the governor vetoed.
* 2011 LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP May 2011
Legislative Action Committee, League of Women Voters of Colorado
The Second Regular Session of the Sixty-Seventh General Assembly did something not seen for a few years: didn't end early. A slew of late bills, some very contentious, caused the legislature to use the full 120 days, less a couple of hours.
The Legislative Action Committee followed more than 110 bills this year, supporting about 80% and opposing about 20%. More than half of those we opposed were defeated. Only about 20% of those we supported were defeated....
* Legislative Letter 8-2011
April 25,2011: Redistricting: The Legislature's Second Required Job this Session
The Joint Select Committee on Redistricting was selected before Colorado's 68th General Assembly even started. It was an attempt to prepare a US Congressional redistricting plan on a bipartisan basis to preclude the need for a special session and/or another plan determined by the courts.
Membership of the committee is made up of five Democrats and five Republicans. Five are from the Senate and five from the House. The members come from throughout the state. Members are: Sens. Heath (Co-chair) (D), Schwartz(D), Carroll (D), Brophy (R)and Scheffel (R); Reps. Balmer (Co-chair) (R), Nikkel (R), Coram (R), E Vigil (D), and Pabon (D).
Colorado's population has increased 17% since the last census, but not enough to warrant an eighth district. However, not every district has increased population in equal proportions, so some revamping is necessary to put 718,457 people into each district. Equal population (or as close as possible) is required to achieve "one per-son, one vote."...
*Legislative Letter 7-2011
April 11, 2011: THE BUDGET
By this time in the session, we are usually publishing our analysis of the just passed Long Bill (SB 209, Sen. Hodge, Rep.Gerou; watch). This year, political differences delayed introduction for over a week. As we go to press, the Senate has passed the budget on second reading, for the most part in the form that it was brought to the floor. Substantive changes amounted to restoring funding for some programs, if and as money becomes available from payments under a tax amnesty program, proposed by SB 184 (which the Senate approved on second reading also on April 8)...
*Legislative Letter 6-2011 March 28, 2011:
THROWAWAY CHILDREN REVISITED
The League of Women Voters has long been concerned about the punitive direction our laws took in 1996 with
the passage of HB 96-1005 Juvenile Justice. This change in direction was a response to an increase in youth violence
and the perception that the juvenile justice system was inadequate to handle it. (At that time the longest
term a child could be sentenced to in the juvenile system was 5 years; it is now seven years.) HB 96-1005 lowered
the age at which a juvenile could be charged as an adult to 12 and lowered the age at which a juvenile
could be direct filed on from 16 to 14 (League opposed this). Direct file allows the DA to make the decision to
file in adult court instead of a juvenile court judge making the decision after considering specified factors at a transfer hearing. We believe that this represents an abandonment of the concept of the juvenile justice system
which was created because it was recognized that children and adolescents are not miniature adults and are capable
of growth and change and deserve an opportunity to be rehabilitated...
*Legislative Letter 5-2011
March 14, 2011:
HEALTH CARE REFORM: OPT OUT OR TAKE ADVANTAGE? Nothing typifies the conflict over healthcare reform more clearly than two bills currently moving through the legislature. The first would enable Colorado to opt out of federal healthcare reform altogether.
NEW HB 1273 Health Care Opportunity Patient Empower (Rep. Nikkel and Stephens; Sen. Kopp) (oppose)
would authorize the state to negotiate with other states to develop an interstate compact to allow the signatory states to opt out of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in order to regulate health care at the state level...
The other bill would develop a mechanism to provide efficient and effective healthcare to people throughout Colorado,taking advantage of the federal healthcare reform. (For a detailed description of this bill, see LL#4, page 30.)
SB 11-168, Colorado Health Care Cooperative (Sen. Aguilar; Rep. Kefalas) (support). At the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee hearing on February 28, 20 proponents and 3 opponents presented lengthy testimony.
Supporters, including League, spoke of the importance of implementing an efficient and cost effective system that would provide broad access including in rural areas. Supporters included numerous small business owners who described the cooperative as a solution to their challenges with getting health insurance for themselves and their employees. Opponents who spoke represented parts of the insurance industry, concerned that cooperatives would impact their industry...
*Legislative Letter 4-2011 February 28, 2011:
CREATION OF COLORADO HEALTH CARE AUTHORITY
Although the United States Congress passed the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act in 2010, there is still a long way to go in delivering basic level quality health care at an affordable cost to U.S. citizens. Sen. Aguilar has introduced SB 168, Creation of the Colorado Health Care Authority to design a health care cooperative for Coloradoans. The League has long championed health care services to all, and believes health care policy goals should include equitable distribution of services, efficient and economical delivery of care and reasonable total national expenditure levels for health care.
SB 168 proposes that an authority be formed --funded by gifts, grants and donations-- to recommend a coopera-tive to the general assembly. Upon legislative approval, the measure would go to the voters as a referred meas-ure. The members of the authority would be selected by the president of the senate, the speaker of the house and the governor, addressing geographical, social and demographic diversity of the state.
The Cooperative would be a nonprofit, member-governed corporation, with all Colorado residents electing the Colorado Health Care Board that would make financial and coverage decisions. The coverage for basic, prima-ry health care would be provided to all Colorado residents. The bill makes allowances for persons who have additional insurance plans, making the Cooperative a secondary plan. Successful cooperatives use high-performance integrated health care systems (IHS) that have a primary care team called a "Medical home" to help members maintain or achieve wellness and they provide a network of specialists and hospitals for disease care when needed...
*Legislative Letter 3-2011
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL STUDENTS TO ACCESS HIGHER EDUCATION
A new approach to legislation that was unsuccessful two years ago would enable undocumented students the opportunity
to attend institutions of higher education in Colorado at in-state tuition rates. The new bill SB 126 Unsubsidized
In-State Tuition sponsored by Sens. Giron and Rep. Miklosi (support) creates a new classification of student at
state higher education institutions...
*Legislative Letter 2-2011
IMMIGRATION BILL INTRODUCED
Sen. Lambert and Rep. Balmer have introduced SB 54 Authority To Arrest Unlawful Aliens (oppose), which
is loosely modeled on a controversial AZ law and is an attempt to deal with the problem of illegal immigration.
It does so by making violation of federal law also a state offense. The bill would empower a law enforcement
officer to arrest a person without a warrant if the officer has "probable cause" (a fairly well-defined legal
concept) to believe that the person is an alien who meets any one of three criteria:
- Has been ordered to leave the country;
- Has been indicted for or been convicted of one or more aggravated felonies, as defined in federal law;
or,
- Has willfully failed to register with the federal government, as required by federal law.
The bill stipulates that the bill, if enacted, "shall be implemented in a manner consistent with federal laws regulating
immigration, protecting the civil rights of all persons, and respecting the privileges and immunities
of United States citizens."
The bill is an improvement over the Arizona law in that it requires " probable cause"
before making an arrest, and this is a better established legal standard than the "reasonable suspicion" that the
Arizona law requires...
*Legislative Letter 1-2011
ACTION ALERTS
This year, we are adopting a new process for requesting lobbying "action" from local leagues and their
members. Along with each legislative letter, we will include this page identifying 1-3 bills for action by
members. Included will be a short description, our position and explanation. We will ask that you contact
members of the committee of reference hearing the bill, or contact your senator or representative
when the full body is set to hear a bill. These days, best communication is by email, although phone calls
(often leaving a message) and letters are also just fine. You can find phone numbers, email and US mail
addresses of legislators. Look near the middle of the screen for Legislative Directory (Pink Book).
LWVUS 2011 VOTER
Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our
webmaster.
Last revised: February 3, 2012 11:27 PST.
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League of Women Voters of La Plata County, Colorado. All rights reserved.
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